Author
Topic: 2014 BJCP Style Guidelines Discussion (Read 2727 times)

I've seen some living nightmares that were pretty bad. I'm tempted to describe a few, but fear that even their mere mention would be devastating. But none of them even come close to the pure living hell that ordering an uncategorized beer would be.

Reminds me of some of the old recipe books back when I started ! The recipes either used 'ale yeast' or 'lager yeast'. And you had the malt extract cans with the packet of yeast taped to the lid. Stuff has come a long way.

Scoff if you will, but the 1970s Maltose Falcons guidelines make just as much sense as the BJCP guidelines do.

I know and hear the argument about judging. But 99.9% of the drinking public care nothing about these guidelines. I know a few professional brewers, and none of them care a twit about whether any recipe they are formulating is within some style guidelines. They all tell me that if the public likes it, and they decide to submit it to a festival competition, then they will figure out what category they want to submit it in.

Which is the most important criterion: Does the public want to drink it? If yes, style be damned.

I know I am beating a dead horse, and that most of the forum disagree with me, but having been a non-BJCP judge for 10+ years for both craft beer and home brew competitions, I still believe the best tasting beer is the best tasting beer, regardless of style guidelines. A lot of the craft beer judging was done in accordance with the craft beer judging style guide, posted earlier.

The last homebrew competition I judged, I was paired with the head brewer from a local (and excellent) microbrewery. It was a BJCP (sanctioned?) event. We were judging using the BJCP score sheet, and were agreeing with a point or two for the entire flight, and all was fine. Then, the second to last on the flight, we came across a delicious beer that I scored low but Mr. Professional Craft Brewer scored high. The difference? Although it was delicious, it was out of style.

I explained to the brewer why we had to score it lower, because it was out of style, and he agreed and lowered his score. But he asked me, "Why?"

And I did not have a good answer, so I suggested to him that may be we were not cut out to be BJCP judges.

So no styles are presented and you walk into a construction themed brewpub and your choices are:GravelShovelWheelbarrowHardhatConcreteMortarJackhammerJumping Jacketc.

None have descriptions because that would cause them to be stylistically something. What do you order and why?

If they described the beer as a light lager...boom...there's something you recognize as a style. I mean when you homebrew you make stylistic decisions even when you aren't shooting for style. You choose yeast, which cause the beer to hone in on a style, hops - style, water treatment - style, etc. Now no one has to meet or even come close to a style, but to say their should be no styles is a bit absurd.

So no styles are presented and you walk into a construction themed brewpub and your choices are:GravelShovelWheelbarrowHardhatConcreteMortarJackhammerJumping Jacketc.

None have descriptions because that would cause them to be stylistically something. What do you order and why?

If they described the beer as a light lager...boom...there's something you recognize as a style. I mean when you homebrew you make stylistic decisions even when you aren't shooting for style. You choose yeast, which cause the beer to hone in on a style, hops - style, water treatment - style, etc. Now no one has to meet or even come close to a style, but to say their should be no styles is a bit absurd.

Exactly. Styles help you know wtf you're getting. Obviously if you're a BMC guy you have your go to beer (which is clearly Gravel in this case). You could just go in there and order your Gravel... but if you happen to like different kinds of beers... Good luck ordering a beer... You're going to have to talk to the bartender forever and hope and pray they have tried those beers...

So no styles are presented and you walk into a construction themed brewpub and your choices are:GravelShovelWheelbarrowHardhatConcreteMortarJackhammerJumping Jacketc.

None have descriptions because that would cause them to be stylistically something. What do you order and why?

If they described the beer as a light lager...boom...there's something you recognize as a style. I mean when you homebrew you make stylistic decisions even when you aren't shooting for style. You choose yeast, which cause the beer to hone in on a style, hops - style, water treatment - style, etc. Now no one has to meet or even come close to a style, but to say their should be no styles is a bit absurd.

Exactly. Styles help you know wtf you're getting. Obviously if you're a BMC guy you have your go to beer (which is clearly Gravel in this case). You could just go in there and order your Gravel... but if you happen to like different kinds of beers... Good luck ordering a beer... You're going to have to talk to the bartender forever and hope and pray they have tried those beers...

Yeah, I agree. The Style Guidelines serve two primary functions. One is to set comparison standards for those of us who want to be involved in brewing competitions. This calls for more precise and technical specs. The second is to provide the beer-drinking public with a common vocabulary. While less precision is necessary for this, it does let us order a beer with some confidence as to generally what we're going to get, and to discuss beers with some clarity (no pun intended).

The style guidelines certainly are not perfect but having some type of style guidelines provides a set of rules that all participants in a competition can follow when entering their beers. Without them, each competition turns entirely into a ranking of the personal preferences of the judges and inevitably that means the biggest versions of each style are most likely to win. That would result in more complaints about the quality of judges and less interest in competition. There is a place for those kinds of open-ended, people's choice-type competitions but those are generally not regarded as serious competitions.